AN UNDESIRABLE MIXTURE
It is irritating to hear people speak a mixture of English and Hindi in television discussions. Phrases like 'Tu tu mein mein', 'Arey yaar, chhoro na', 'Raksha Mantri', 'Karyakartaa' have their corresponding English words which ought to be used to maintain chastity of language.
A queer admixture of tongues is the sure sign of cultural decadence and not that of linguistic evolution as may be foolishly argued. Television anchors are no more strict about the linguistic medium which their channels are supposed to be adhering to and frequently go into interspersing their dialogues with a smattering of Hindi and even Bengali sometimes. This is not what a puritan like me likes. Let men have mastery over their tongues and keep away from such flirtation with the vernaculars when they are speaking in English. Likewise, they ought to speak the vernaculars chaste and assiduously avoid interspersing them with English.
A final word. Study Sanskrit and rescue Hindi from its overload of Urdu words. What most people speak is hardly Sanskrit-based Hindi but is, rather, largely Urdu-based Hindi with a preponderance of Urdu words that have virtually obliterated Hindi as such.
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : Goswami Tulsi Das
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